OUR FAMILY HISTORY

My work on our family's history was initiated when I found a letter among my dad’s records from a lady, Nellie (Haslip) Miller, to whom dad had written seeking information about the Bransford family. Her great great grandfather was our John Bransford by his second wife, Judith Ammonett, who was also my dad’s great great great grandfather. This letter is dated 1908 and I have no idea how dad came to write to her except that I knew that dad had had a keen interest in family history all of my life.

I recall on one occasion, we made a family trip to Fort Worth so that dad could visit an attorney there, Felix Bransford, to discuss family relationships. As I recall, neither dad nor Felix could establish a close family tie but Felix was undoubtedly a relative from a couple of generations prior.

In any case, Mrs. Haslip/Miller had put down a sketchy record of the Bransford family that had been given to her by her mother and her hand-written account was very clear as to the family connections.

From this start, I soon found out that a great deal of research had been done over many years, establishing the Bransford History. There were, in addition to Mrs. Miller, John Shriver, Bille Bransford Clark, the Rev. Samuel Bransford, Winston W. Bransford, Jeanie Gracey Allen, Christie Bransford Wyman, Lucile Martin, and others. Most of these records agree and the differences, where there are any, are mostly minor.

This search led me to several researchers of the Bransford Family History but it also reminded me that a Shirley Cousin had visited my mom to compile Shirley Family information. This cousin, Claude Bouchillon, did a great deal of research which he meticulously documented. Much of my Shirley History is from his compilation.



Claude Bouchillon with my mother (on the right) and Aunt Artye

This, of course, led me to seek out information on Marty's family. We knew where her father and her maternal grandparents were born in Moravia and on several trips there, we were able to uncover a wealth of information on her father's and her mother's families.



Our wonderful friends in the Czech Republic, Jiri (George) and Bozena (Bertha) Dressler at their home in Tasov

We were helped in much of this work by new-found friends, Jiri and Bozena Dressler - no relation to Marty but we are still trying to establish a link. Most of the Dressler, Mikieska, Valicek and Zbranek history was compiled by Dr. Ladislav Baletka, the District Archivist for Vsetin, Moravia. Ladislav and his family became dear friends and were invaluable in establishing Marty's genealogy!

Our last visit with the Pavelka family in 2001 - Antonin Pavelka is standing at left,
then Bozena and Jiri Dressler and Jerry. Seated are Vera Pavelkova and Marty.
Marty's great grandfather, Johann, was born in this home almost 190 years ago - the year was 1812!

We were fortunate to have found the home where Marty's Great Grandfather was born in the small village of Sadek in Northern Moravia. The home is now owned by the Pavelka Family who made us feel welcome when we visited them. They also shared some of the history of the Dressler Family that had been compiled by some of Marty's cousins and left with them for safekeeping!

Ladislav and Marty on a recent visit to Moravia.

During a recent visit with Ladislav in his home in Valasske Mezirici, Moravia, recently, he suggested that I post the results of our family history search on the internet. The following pages are a result of that suggestion.